In a July 31, 2009 report , Advisen became the latest group to confirm that securities litigation declined in the second quarter of 2009, noting in its report entitled "Securities Litigation Drops in Q2 2009" (here) that securities lawsuit filings "fell off in the second quarter from the frantic first quarter." Advisen’s July 31, 2009 press release describing its study can be found here.

 

But while the Advisen report is consistent with the report released earlier by Cornerstone Research (refer here), NERA Economic Consulting (refer here), as well as my own prior report (here), the Advisen report takes a slightly different approach to the topic and as a result contributes an important additional perspective.

 

It is absolutely critical to note at the outset that in using the term "securities lawsuit," the Advisen report is describing a category broader than just securities class action litigation. In addition to the securities class action litigation, the Advisen report uses the term "securities lawsuit" to include shareholder derivative litigation; breach of fiduciary duty litigation; "securities fraud" litigation, which includes regulatory actions brought by the SEC; as well as other kinds of litigation.

 

Using this broad definition, the Advisen reports that there were 121 "securities lawsuit" filings in the second quarter, down from 212 in the record-setting first quarter. Overall the first half "securities lawsuit" filings were within although slightly below historical norms.

 

The Advisen report notes that there were 37 new securities class action lawsuit filings in the second quarter, down from 70 in the first quarter. The 107 first half securities class action lawsuit filings would translate into 214 filings on an annualized basis, "in line with most recent years."

 

In speculating on the reasons for the first half decline, the Advisen report comments that the first half filings seem to have been "frontloaded" into the first quarter of the year. The report also states that "the second quarter could represent a lull in litigation activity while law firms worked on the flood of suits from the first quarter." The report does note (as I also observed, here) that "the first few weeks of the third quarter have seen a surge in securities suits once again."

 

The Advisen report also states that there were 41 settlements/awards in securities lawsuits in the second quarter of 2009, including the $2.9 billion jury award against Richard Scrushy in the HealthSouth shareholders’ derivative lawsuit. Taking the Scrushy award into account, the average settlement/award in the second quarter was $101.5 million, but if the Scrushy award is disregarded the average settlement/award drops to $60.0 million. The average securities class action settlement in the second quarter was $74.5 million, a quarterly average amount the report describes as "quite high."

 

The report has a number of other interesting observations, many of which have been noted in the previously released reports, including the concentration of the litigation activity in the financial sector; the increasing level of litigation involving foreign domiciled companies; and the elevated levels of activity involving the Ponzi scheme allegations.

 

Advisen Webinar: Advisen will be hosting a free webinar to discuss the findings in its second quarter report on August 3, 2009 at 11 am EDT. I will be participating in the call along with David Bradford and John Molka of Advisen, Randy Hein of Chubb and Tripp Sheehan of Marsh. For further information about the call and to register, refer here.

 

About Those July Securities Filings: The Advisen report mentions that in the first month of the third quarter, securities class action lawsuit filings seem to have ramped up again. Just to detail that point, by my count, there were at least 16 new securities class action lawsuits filed in July, which is a filing rate that is back at historical levels.

 

With respect to the new July filings, it is also interesting to note how few of these new lawsuits were in the financial sector. While five of the new lawsuits involve financial companies, the other eleven did not, which is sort of the exact opposite of the equivalent proportions for the first half of the year. Of the eleven new suits involving nonfinancial companies, as many as seven involved companies involved in the life sciences sector.

 

The other interesting thing about these July filings is how many of them involve purported class periods ending dates that are well in the past, as I previously noted here. To cite the most recent example, the purported class period in the July 30, 2009 securities class action lawsuit filing against International Game Technology (refer here) ends on October 30, 2008.

 

The July filings seem to me to be consistent with the hypothesis that the downturn in securities class action filings during the second quarter was just a temporary lull. In addition, the July filings are inconsistent with the hypothesis that the plaintiffs’ lawyers are running out of targets to sue. Rather, the July filings suggest to me, as I have speculated elsewhere, that the plaintiffs’ lawyers ran into a logjam during the second quarter and as they ran up a backlog of cases to be filed against nonfinancial companies. All of the evidence so far in the third quarter is entirely consistent with this final hypothesis.

 

One Thing the Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Were Up to During the First Half: As I also noted elsewhere, though the plaintiffs’ lawyers’ may not have been filing new securities class action lawsuits during the second quarter, they were by no means idle. A July 31, 2009 press release (here) by the Tramont Guerra & Nunez firm, issued in response to the various published reports regarding the decline in second quarter filings, provides some insight into at least one particular way the plaintiffs’ lawyers were otherwise occupied during the second quarter.

 

According to the press release, Finra’s dispute resolution statistics show an 82% increase in the arbitration claims for the first half of the year, with the majority of claims filed for breach of fiduciary duty and misrepresentation. Finra’s statistics can be found here. As I said, the plaintiffs’ lawyers were not idle.